Thermal evolution of Los Cuervos formation in the southern area of the Cesar sub-basin (Colombia), based on geochemical and petrophysical data

Abstract

The tectonic complexity to which the post-Cretaceous Cesar-Ranchería basin has been subjected has generated alterations in the evolution of its oil system, evidence of this is the lack of stratigraphic record in the Cesar sub-basin belonging to ages ranging from the Eocene to the Early Miocene. These units that are no longer present could have been deposited and eroded during this period of time, leaving their mark on the closest overlying units. Previously mentioned hypothesis oriented this research to study how the basin filling was in the time range from the Eocene to the early Miocene based on both organic (24 Tmax and 14 %Ro data) and inorganic (514 data of porosity) paleo-geothermometer data of Paleocene age formations present in two new wells ANH-LA LOMA-2 and ANH-CR-LOS CEREZOS-1X. In addition to the data provided by the wells drilled for this study, 31 published Tmax and 13 %Ro data from Los Cuervos Formation in the Calenturitas and La Jagua Mines were used. The results obtained indicate that the continuous deposition of sedimentary units did occur from the Paleocene to the middle Eocene and it is expected that the Sedimentitas del Eoceno Formation has reached a thickness between 2.5 to 3.5km with characteristics of quartz sandstones (density and compaction). This thickness of rock began to be eroded in the late Eocene to the Miocene according to recent thermo-chronological studies. The evidence obtained allow to improve the thermal evolution models of the oil system, to establish when the greatest advances were made in the transformation ratios and to estimate how the oldest source rocks of the Cesar sub-basin are currently in the studied area.